French officials have uncovered an ordnance disposal site in the Meuse region where shells left over from the First World War were dismantled and are contaminating the soil. The affected area is close to Verdun, the northeastern French city where a famous battle was fought in which over 300,000 German and French Soldiers died.

Local authorities have banned farmers from selling their produce due to traces of metal and chemical compounds being found in the soil, including arsenic, lead, and zinc. Traces of explosives and industrial chemicals used in the disposal of the shells were also found.

Authorities submitted samples of locally grown wheat, barley, and sweetcorn for testing and also milk from cows grazing in the area. Results show that safety thresholds for substances that have them were not exceeded but other substances detected during testing do not currently have regulatory thresholds. So as a precautionary measure, the powers at be have decided to carry out further testing to determine if the levels of the compounds are harmful to humans.

Are you aware of any historical uses on your land? If the MOD were involved there’s every likelihood that you may have something lurking beneath you that should not really be there…! If you’re ever in doubt why not drop us a line for a brief confidential chat – we don’t bite…!

Everything you wanted to know about soil remediation but were too afraid to ask!

This free guide will help you understand the whats, the whys and the hows of soil remediation in the simplest terms. Download it now for free!

While the clean up after the Christmas flooding is well under way and home-owners are looking to get back into their homes as soon as possible, it’s worth bringing to attention of folks living in a rural setting who use an oil fired heating system, to check their systems for damage or leaks whenever its practical to do so.

Considerations:

Plastic tanks can float and separate from their oil lines;

Rising waters can cause the concrete plinths to heave and result in a strain between tanks and oil lines;

Floating debris can pierce the skin of the tanks, and rip oil lines free;

Seek the advice of a qualified heating engineer.

What to look out for:

Any staining or odours is a main indicator of damage to the system;

An obvious check home owners can make is to dip the level of oil in the tank, if they keep a good record of oil deliveries and have a rough idea how much oil they personally use over a period of time will help ascertain whether the level of oil in the tank corresponds to how much should be there;

Dents or damage to the outer skin of tanks (in particular single skinned tanks) may not be an immediate threat, but have the potential to become one;

Odours trapped internally in the fabric of the building once flood waters recede.

Available free information on dealing with and preventing loss of oil, including:

When dealing with groundwater remediationas with most things in life there are various options. Do you want to treat in situ? Do you want to extract the water and dispose off site? Or extract and treat on site?

Choosing the right treatment technique can require a lot of site investigation and data collection to decide upon the correct treatment. Once a treatment has been decided upon, approval and licences from local authorities may need to be obtained. Site management and monitoring/sampling regimes will need to be organised. Continual data collection, reporting, a final validation and a final summary report completed.

Soilution’s most used remediation techniques include :-

Pump and treat

Extraction and disposal

Chemical oxidation

Air Sparging

Vapour extraction

Common practice can be to install an Impermeable barrier to contain or restrict contaminant migration. Ultimately this will not remove the contaminant so a treatment system may need to be installed along with the barrier.

Whether you’re just getting an idea of groundwater remediation, or you’re looking for ‘The Works’, if you have any questions then please feel free to contact us on 0800 0209 307 or email us

Everything you wanted to know about soil remediation but were too afraid to ask!

This free guide will help you understand the whats, the whys and the hows of soil remediation in the simplest terms. Download it now for free!